What is Calculus
by RaeVin
Summary: Calculus is like friendship. You have to work at it if you want to succeed. You need to put in time, effort, dedication and hard work, but it will pay off in the end.


Okay, I wrote this back in August, but just decided, what the hay, I might as well post it for fun. One of our first calc assignments was to write a fictitious short story describing calculus. Being the uber nerd that I am, I decided to make my characters Robin and Raven. This is an AU fic, pretty silly and dorky, but whatever.

What is Calculus?

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The second hand of the large, round clock on his wall moved unbelievably slowly as he stared at his notebook in front of him. To his right, the calculus book lay open to the evening's homework assignment, and to the left, his computer screen was signaling that he had received a new instant message.

"Aww, screw it. I don't have time for this right now." Dick slammed his book closed as he began to type to his friend, arranging plans to meet up with the guys later. It seemed that Dick had been doing that a lot lately. He had begun to put off doing his calc homework till the last minute, doing a poor job on it, and often times not completing a good portion of it. He noticed that his test scores in the class had been slipping, too. But, quite frankly, Dick just didn't care anymore.

… … …

Raven sat cross-legged on her bed in her room, her eyes glued to the phone, as if her burning gaze could just will it to ring and be him. He had told her that he would call her at seven; he had promised that this time he would not forget. Now in her mind, she was not thinking, 'Don't make a promise you can't keep,' but 'Don't make a promise that you won't even make an effort to keep.'

Raven was a smart girl. She always did her homework; she always studied hard and worked persistently to achieve her good grades, especially with calculus. Calculus was hard, but Raven liked that it that way. The discipline it was teaching her was making a positive impact in her life, especially with self control, a struggle she had endured for a long time. Raven had been greatly improving in school; she managed without too much difficulty because of the amount of time and effort that she put into it. Her homework was already finished and stored neatly in her organized two inch binder.

Raven was smart, yes. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not figure out what had gone wrong in her friendship with Dick. They had known each other since before either of them could remember. When they were little, they used to spend hours at a time playing games that only they understood. When Dick fell out of a tree and broke his arm in the seventh grade, Raven was there at his side in the hospital room. When Raven ran home from school in tears in the ninth grade after being teased and harassed for what he idolized as intelligence and motivation, it was Dick who stood up for her, then comforted her and showed her what a wonderful, bright person she really was. He was her best friend and she was his, or at least she thought she was.

During the past few months, it seemed that the two had been drifting apart. They rarely hung out on weekends, and almost never during the week. And it was always Raven who called Dick to do something, never the other way around. It was as if he didn't feel like making the effort to continue their friendship. He had made new friends and found new interests, none of which included Raven.

She flopped back on her bed and let out a long, sad sigh. Raven didn't really know when this falling out between them began, but it hurt.

… … …

When Dick entered his room at eleven o'clock that night, he collapsed onto his bed and was about to click on the television when his unfinished calc homework caught his eye. Raven was always harping on him to try harder on it, spend more time on it, to really apply himself instead of just blowing it off. Raven always-

His thoughts stopped in a standstill. Raven. He forgot to call her. He promised and he forgot. Dick cursed himself for being so stupid, so careless and inconsiderate. Raven was his best friend, but lately he had been treating her like she meant nothing to him.

He realized that he was no longer putting any effort into the friendship; he just took it for granted. There was no determination or time put forth on his part. She was at least doing what she could to keep them together. But he let their friendship slowly slip away.

Ever since Dick started slacking off in calc, they began to drift. Raven urged him to do better, but he didn't heed warning from the driven, studious girl. Now, his grade was dropping quickly down the drain, and so was his friendship with Raven. If he didn't do something to set it right soon, neither would have the chance of recovering.

… … …

_Ring. Ring_. Short, violet lock swung sharply as Raven's head popped out of the book she was reading and her eyes landed on the phone, half of her wanting to let it ring all night just to spite him, and half wanting to talk to him. She reached forward and hesitantly picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Come downstairs." Click.

That was it? She was confused but hurried down the stairs anyway. Standing in her foyer with a huge bouquet of flowers was Dick.

… … …

After convincing Raven that he knew he was a jerk, admitting all his faults with the friendship, and vowing to do everything in the world to make it up to her, the two friends discussed what had happened and then parted feeling closer to each other then they ever had before.

When Dick entered his room again that evening and his eyes happened to fall upon his calc homework, instead of leaving it incomplete, he sat down and got right to work.

Calculus is like friendship. You have to work at it if you want to succeed; you need to put in time, effort, dedication and hard work, but it will pay off in the end.

* * *

Haha, well, there it is. Review and tell me if you thought it was totally stupid. I haven't yet decided if I should burn this piece or not.

Thanks, though!

RaeVin

EDIT: If you are a calc geek like me, I have a hilarious Mathematical Romance in my profile. Check it out for a great laugh.


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